Mickey Adams Simul

Mickey Adams March 2014 rating 281 ecf or 2751 fide.

British ranked No.1

World rank No.16

The players that managed to avoid defeat against Super Grand Master Mickey Adams.Left to right:P Kitchen(draw),S Rooney(winner),Mickey Adams,Myself(draw) and F Best(draw)

The event kicked off with a blitz event in the morning, followed by Mickey running through a couple of his games and then the main event the simul display.

I was up nice and early ready for the blitz event which I must admit did fancy winning, however the draw back of doing so may result in gaining a live internet board versus Mickey Adams.

Things started very nicely with me winning the first game via illegal move but the game was over on the board and my opponent had 1 second versus 3minutes 8 an early indication I was playing reasonable. I won the next round too and things were going to plan. 3rd round things took a downward turn after blundering a piece I was somewhat fortunate to win it back and get a draw. Still not devastating, but in round 4 thinking  I had an unstoppable mating threat got caught out my self and lost, so with no chance of winning went into the last round playing for nothing however I did go on to win that game and finish 5th with 3.5/5 and 4 players sharing 1st place with 4/5 showing the quality of players that no one managed 5/5.

When Mickey arrived he went through an interesting game, highlighting the art of sacrafice ,tactics and building pressure against a weakness . Even though the game was against a GM Adams himself was happy to question some of the moves made by his opponent, as some didn't seem to make that much sense but the game and principals behind Adams play was interesting. The second game he went through I must admit found somewhat boring and was based around the principal that opposite colour bishops with rooks on the board isn't a certain draw like most people think but instead often results in a win for one of the sides.

The simul finally started after lunch and although not all 40 boards were taken there were only afew that had not been taken up, Players strength ranging from beginner to strong county players. A nice touch was that not all live internet boards were for the elite players but spread across a range of playing strengths.

Well it seem like an age before the first game finished indeed a live board move 21 M Bukojemski lost ironic that the simul was down to him in the first place, but as expected this somewhat started an avalanche as by the 30 move mark nearly half the boards had fallen foul to the super GM, but in amongst them a draw for Francis Best (Shrewsbury) the first minor wound to GMs ego. In my game things were getting very uncomfortable for myself ,as I was increasingly aware that Adams was spending more and more time at it, whizzing around some boards but others were clearly getting some special attention. I was unaware that a second draw had happened Peter Kitchen (shrewsbury) but I was sat next to the board that was not going Adams way at all, he had blundered a piece on it and Steve Rooney (Church Stretton)was taking full advantage, as I saw a winning combination for him the pressure seemed to take charge and Steve missed it, afew moves later it became apparent it was not going to make any difference as a simlar combination was on the cards and this time Steve won. I must admit I was very pleased for Steve would have been horrible if he had gone home having missed the chance to beat a SuperGM, back to my game I was being ground down, every nothing move seemed to be an attempt for me to find a losing move but I continued to fight on, boards continued to fall but finally it was almost as though Adams had run out of traps and I had found the answers to all his questions willingly he conceded the draw. the score for Shropshire was now 2.5 one win and 3 draws afew boards were fighting on but there were to be not further positive results.